The Duchess and the Devil

Judith, who was looking up at him, sighed, and pulled away her arm that he was holding onto.

“We are a married couple, but we didn’t even use the same bedroom.”

“Why?”

“…..Because we hated each other a lot. To the point we didn’t want to share a bedroom.”

Not only that, she ignored the fact that he had been using a separate bedroom for years due to Judith’s personality, and she couldn’t adjust herself to his liking. Even though Derrick could not recall any of his memories, Judith would still see him as a despicable husband and a man who was infinitely careless. As long as his shell didn’t transform at all, her pessimistic point of view of him would not change.

Derrick showed an expression of musing over her confession. Going “hmm” as his arms were crossed.

“Why? Your husband, is he a fool?”

Judith was at a loss for words, but then she started laughing uncontrollably.

Her husband was him, but he referred to himself as if he was, in fact, a different person. It made her laugh. It must be because he didn’t have any memories of those events. Judith now changed her thinking, adjusting herself to his behaviour, first of all.

Derrick unexpectedly stretched his hand out to her even before she stopped laughing.

Judith was dragged by his hand, which held her waist around and drew it towards him. She came into contact with him on his upper body. Her breasts, which were obscured by the dress, were pressed down by her husband’s solid chest. Instead of the smell of cigarettes that he usually gave off, he gave off a cold atmosphere that faintly stimulated her.

She swore that it was the first time she was ever closely face-to-face with him like this. It was such a close distance that there seemed to be no problem kissing at once. The sound of her heart seemed to just be overlapping with the top of his chest that she was in contact with.

“Wh— What is it?”

Judith was unable to hide her embarrassment and trembled her eyelids.

“I need my wife.”

Derrick looked down and grinned mischievously at Judith, who was rolling her eyes side to side. He tilted his head and bit her earlobe. Judith felt a breath that was fairly hotter than the appropriate temperature and flinched. Her fingertips were tickled by an unfamiliar touch.

“So, how about we combine our bedrooms?”

T/N: HE’S FUCKING SEDUCING HER SO FRANKLY. I-

His low voice tone was covert and distant like a sly fox. He, who quietly nipped on her ears, put out his tongue and licked up her auricle. This sensation she was experiencing for the first time in her life was lewd. Judith broke out in goosebumps to the unfamiliar touch to the point that the hairs stood up completely.

Judith bit her lips at his utterly unpredictable behaviour and pushed away his strong chest. But Derrick could not be budged.

“Wh— What on earth. Is there something that you need me for? Until now, you’ve been living well… uh, indifferently…!”

While she was protesting and doing her best to escape, a very soft tongue penetrated the narrow inside of her ear. The sound of the damp saliva that was heard in a very close distance only seemed to paralyzed her. Otherwise, how could her mind be pure-white like a blank sheet of paper?

“I’m not in a normal state right now.”

Derrick’s thick, low-pitched voice was heard too closely. While Judith hadn’t become aware in time, his hand had turned the width of her skirt and started to reach inside. Judith continuously hit him from the touch that tickled the inside of her thigh like an animal caught in a trap.

“So my wife should help me.”

“Hold on…!”

Struggling with a flustered red face, she barely pushed him away with all her strength. Then, he neatly stood back and grinned, as if he was daring to reach out a lewd touch towards her soon. Now, she was afraid of his sly smile towards her.

“Let us just go to sleep today.”

“Does that mean we’ll be using one bedroom starting tomorrow?”

This man, why the hell does he keep obsessing over us sleeping together?

Judith realized that she was gradually being stopped. She couldn’t Derrick understand at all. Derrick, who has lost his memories, absolutely could not get a rough idea of it. To a certain extent, an general view of things should be shown in order to make some inference. This was more difficult than dealing with a stranger who was unaware of what they didn’t know.

“…..I will try to think about it.”

The reason she couldn’t clear up her words right away was because her heart kept thumping too quickly. Her ears that were touched by his tongue, and the inside of her thigh that was grazed by his fingertips, were throbbing. Strangely enough, since she couldn’t calm down, she wasn’t in the right mind to try to deeply guess his intentions. Right now she only wished to get out of this chaos.

She had no more energy to be confronting him any more than this, and turned her body around. A baritone laughing sound was heard being directed behind her head. He was smiling as he was looking at her, who was moving her feet hurriedly as if in the act of escaping.

If it were any usual day, she would be doing something like snapping at him and his pride would be wounded, but such a thing was an absolutely useless act against her husband who had lost his memories.

She, who had returned to her bedroom, couldn’t even change into her negligee, and collapsed on the bed with a thud.

She was tired and confused.

She didn’t know what happened at all today. What was clear was the fact that her husband, whose funeral had been finished, came back alive and that he had lost his memories.

‘Somehow… My hunch isn’t good.’

Turn.

The expression of hers, who turned towards the wall, was serious. When looking back at the things that happened today, as she recalled about it more, the more she became anxious. Judith intended to think of something else with all her might.

What should she do from now on?

When the news that he was revived became known, he had to attend to his place that had kept being taken care of and looked after by others under the pretext of his illness and funeral. Considering the fact that Derrick was one of the only few Dukes in the Tireur Empire, he had to convey his gratitude to the Emperor, who had generously given him support at the time when he was sick, and…..

Beyond her deepening thoughts, the night was falling deeper and Judith fell asleep quickly before she knew it.

* * *

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The afternoon in which noon just passed.

Judith quickly skimmed through the presents piled up at the entrance to the mansion with a sigh. Plenty of objects were conspicuously occupying the entrance of the ducal residence to the point it couldn’t even be counted up.

These gifts were all sent by the aristocrats in the capital to Derrick who had just been revived. Even though she couldn’t even find out the reason that he was revived yet, looking at the presents that were piled up like a mountain, it didn’t seem like that was important to other people either.

Judith instructed a maid who was passing by.

“Do me a favour, move all those gifts to the warehouse.”

“Are you not going to try to open them up?”

“No.”

Judith answered in her usual tone of voice. If in the case that she was a young lady who couldn’t see such things to the point it was throughout her lifetime, she would welcome gifts that would be pouring in day after day, her eyes shining all glitteringly.

But Judith had no particular motivation because it wasn’t the first time she witnessed the lavishing gifts that were pouring out like this as she was an esteemed daughter of a Marquis. For her, this scene before her was a periodical sight that she would see every year on her birthday ever since when she was young.

As far as she was concerned, she didn’t hold that much interest in it because these gifts were addressed to ‘Derrick Vaisil’, not the ‘ducal couple’. Judith, who ignored the gifts and was planning to return to her room, came across a luxurious envelope that was placed at the very top of the gifts, and picked it up for Derrick, hesitating.

“…Where’s my husband?”

“He is inside his office.”

One week had passed since Derrick Vaisil woke up.

It was not an exaggeration to even say that the most chaotic time in Judith’s life was during that week.

Derrick, whose heart started beating again, had completely changed his personality 180 degrees. Completely changing “as if he had died and regained his consciousness” was applied to him as it was with definitions from a dictionary to words. The atmosphere of the ducal residence, which had dreariness hanging in the air, had changed a lot lately.

Judith, who had counted up the duration of work for the past few days, turned her feet away from the gifts that were piled up like a mountain, and headed for his office.

She had examined her husband closely during the past week. He seemed to have lost his memories as prescribed by the doctor, yet she couldn’t abandon the thought that it might probably be a part of some big plan by him.

But he had changed enough to the point that she was wondering about what in the world happened in that head of his.

It would be weird if she asked nicely, but she would look crazy if she asked badly.

Judith, who headed to the second floor, hesitated before knocking on the door of his office. Whenever she came here, her memories of the time of their first night would vividly emerge as if it were yesterday. It was an uncontrollable existing condition that was occurring beyond Judith’s will. The dizzying voice of the woman who was heard that night only seemed to be floating slowly around the rim of her ears.

At that time, Derrick left her alone in that place with another woman…..

Judith shook her head and brushed off the trivial thoughts as much as she could.

“Are you here?”

After knocking, the door opened and she felt a cool breeze.

Derrick was leaning back against the wide opened window. Derrick, who was looking outside of a window as if he was waiting for something, turned his head towards Judith.

During the past week, there were three kinds of strange aspects she discovered while she was closely observing him.

First and foremost, the irises of his eyes were bright lucid violet, but sometimes they seemed to be red like rubies. That distinct feature was noticeable when he was looking elsewhere and looking back at her especially like right now.

There were changes occurring so quickly to the point it made her wonder if she was just imagining it, but she couldn’t bring herself to ask. She was planning to ask him about it, but before she even opened her mouth, the irises of his eyes were returning to their beautiful violet colour. It was as if she had seen it wrong from the start. So there was no way Judith would be able to point out that change.

The second one was his meals. Derrick would always avoid meal times as he didn’t want to sit at the same dining table even ‘by mistake’ with her. But now he was always eating together with her ever since the day he was brought back to life.

Unlike the first day when he was revived, the amount of his meals had now returned to the usual quantity that other people would eat.

That was fortunate, but to tell the truth, Judith was in a tight position as it was uncomfortable during every meal. Because whenever he put the food in his mouth and chewed it, he would shoot a piercing gaze at her who was at the opposite side of him. Judith would feel uncomfortable and would shiver as if she had become the food that would roll on his tongue and be chewed in between his teeth.

“…..Why are you looking at me like that?”

There was one time when she asked, unable to endure his persistent gaze. Then after pushing in a piece of meat, in which blood was dripping and didn’t smell raw like fish, he replied.

“Looks delicious, that’s why.”

…..What the hell does he mean by ‘Looks delicious, that’s why’, when he’s already eating some food?!

It seemed that he was talking about Judith, whom he was staring at, as a target. Not the meat that he certainly chewed and swallowed, so she felt very strange and odd. Since she didn’t have the very thought of digging up his intentions more than this, Judith shut her mouth and quietly resumed eating her meal. But it had been a long time since her appetite had fallen to rock bottom.

She had no choice, so she had been eating together with him at every meal time even after that, but she couldn’t erase her uneasy look.

Derrick, who came down from the window ledge, approached her with loud footsteps.

Only

Because of the distance that was drawing closer and his rather big physique, a deep black shadow was casted on top of her. It was only just a shadow, but she had an illusion that just felt like she was entirely swallowed by a demon who was certainly wicked. Whenever he looked at her face-to face-like this, he would give off a cold sensation that she couldn’t explain with words.

Derrick’s gaze wandered over Judith’s face for a brief moment. Then not long after, his mouth stretched up without reserve and smiled.

“What’s with that serious look? Did something happen?”

“…….”

And the third strange aspect that he revealed himself was more serious than the two that she had counted previously.

Derrick stared at Judith, who had no response, with a blank look, then suddenly blurted out the exclamation, “Ah!”

“Or, is it that you finally want to use one bedroom together?”

The third change that was crazy and made her heart jump suddenly. That was, his demand that he was fully obsessed with – sleeping together.